1-Bit Circular Polarization Reflectarray Antenna for Uplink Satellite Communication at Ka-Band

This paper presents the design of a reflectarray antenna having circular polarization (CP) for satellite communication applications. The antenna operates in the frequency range of 29-30.2 GHz with an impedance bandwith percentage of 4% and an overlapping 3dB axial ratio bandwidth of 1.25% (29.3-29.67 GHz). The phase delay elements of the proposed reflectarray antenna consist of the metallic rings whose inner and outer radius dimensions are varied to obtain the phase difference between two elements. The phase distribution along the surface of the reflectarray panel is quantized into two levels (0 and pi) to obtain a 1-bit reflectarray. The size of the phase delay elements is 0.29 lambda x 0.29 lambda x 0.15 lambda (lambda is corresponding to wavelength at 29.5 GHz). A corner truncated CP patch acts as a feeding antenna. The reflectarray antenna gives gain of 20.6 dBiC at 29.5 GHz. The reflectarray is fabricated and the performance parameters are experimentally verified. The simulated and experimental results comply well with each other.